Samsung's Galaxy stuck in history

This isn't the Android I was looking for

Comment It seems no one will be updating the Galaxy to Android 2, annoying customers whose purchase decision was based on what it would do rather than what it could do.

The Galaxy was launched in September and has been updated a couple of times since, but it seems that the handset won't be getting an upgrade to Android version 2 despite the new OS coming less than two months later. This is a decision that some customers see as a betrayal of the Android promise.

Version 2 of Google's Android OS provides an enhanced user interface as well as support for Microsoft Exchange and a better web browser. More critically the new version includes tweaks which make the OS run faster and smoother.

O2 support appeared to provide confirmation of the decision with an e-mail sent to a customer that laid the blame firmly at the feet of Samsung's South Korean HQ:

"Samsung HQ are currently not supporting a migration path to upgrade Galaxy to Android 2.0. Samsung UK continue to push for this but confidence on the change is low as Samsung HQ will be launching new devices on Android 2.0 in Q1."

O2 later told us that this e-mail shouldn't have been sent, and that we'd have to take the issue up with Samsung. Samsung promised to get back to us before Christmas but is probably hoping the issue will disappear over time.

The G1, T-Mobile's foray into Android, can run Android 2, though it's hardly equipped for the task as one user demonstrated. Both devices have ARM-based Qualcomm processors running at 528MHz, so getting Android 2 to run on a Galaxy might be a technical challenge, but it's one that Samsung should be more than capable of managing if it wanted to.

Samsung isn't going to get any more money out of those customers, and the company wouldn't want punters confused by old handsets running new software so there's no real incentive to update.

But some customers bought a Galaxy on the basis that they'd be able to run any version of Android, more akin to the desktop PC model than a mobile phone: "That[']s the whole point of buying this phone, the android system evolves so it doesn[']t date", as one disgruntled customer puts it.